draggle: I had the pleasure of watching Queen’s Blade: Rebellion the other night together with some friends. We had all heard rumors of how Queen’s Blade is trashy, misogynistic and tasteless. However, there’s more to it than that. Queen’s Blade actually explores some fascinating aspects of the human condition with class and posse. Let’s start off by examining a small piece of the show’s multifaceted symbolism:

First, look at the moons. The world of Queen’s Blade has three: two green, one blue. Now, look closely at the positioning of the moons and their respective sizes. You’ll notice that they correspond perfectly to the form of the female body! The green moons represent the bosom, and the blue one represents the groin.

Now draw your eyes earthward. Those mountains? Once again, we have a symbol for the female chest (although it’s perhaps unrealistically small for the world of Queen’s Blade). One important detail is left out of this particular screenshot: there’s actually a small, circular temple in front of the mountains. Where? You guessed it. Right at the point that corresponds to the crotch. Queen’s Blade reflects the Hermetic maxim:

That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing. — The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus

I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to work out what the enormous erectile monster ravaging the mountains and temple symbolizes.

redball: I’m afraid I must disagree with draggle’s interpretation of the symbolism in this series. Those mountains are not meant to be breasts, but legs splayed apart almost violently. At their base, a temple, just as draggle mentioned but from a very different angle.

The sacred chastity of this temple cannot be tainted by any outsider but the chosen one. The door to the temple is locked so that only the Dancer can open it, with her codpiece as the final key. The lock is in the pattern of a flower and the codpiece goes to the center, which splits the flower in two. This is a classic representation of fertilization.

In fact, I believe the entire set is representative of the Sun & Moon Dancer’s chastity. This is a small village, and she is its princess of sorts. Her sex life is not simply her own, but it is dictated by tradition and religious beliefs. She must give herself to the one chosen by the village elder, a historically common way to form alliances.

When the Dancer leads Annelotte into the shrine initially, it is a matter of formality. The wry way in which she does this shows that she has been raised for this moment. The mountains above her are forced apart. She leads our heroine into the most intimate of circumstances out of duty, but soon must back down out of fear this was a mistake. The rest of this episode we see her attempt to cope with this.

SnippetTee: If we’re going to take the Sun/Moon Dancer’s premonition into consideration, they are actually waiting for a knight. That’s why I have to agree with redball. These mountains seemed to elicit the legs, particularly Annelotte’s embodiment. If we’re going to decipher the two yellow moons together with those humongous piles of earth, we can perceive these as testes. As for the blue moon, I believe that it emblematically represent the egg. This fundamentally proves her dichotomous identity.

Aside from this, taking the sizes into consideration—the blue moon being smaller than the two yellow ones—and having these yellow round moons detached to the mountain symbolically represent the totality of Annelotte’s idiotically deceitful manhood. This imbecility is so deeply profound that until now, I’m so befuddled on how the heck her audacious body managed to swindle the villagers especially the Sun/Moon Dancer into believing that she’s a guy.

If there’s one thing that I’m truly amused with Annelotte, that is her unmatchable sex appeal. Based from the portrayals, it’s quite apparent that she strongly attracts everyone especially girls and the most pervious monsters— one great example is the half-monstrous like Sun/Moon Dancer with a gutsy body.

John Sato: I think this is one of many great examples of what the show is really about: the evolution of a sex culture. Indeed, there seems to be no other plot to speak of, so I believe that this chronicle is the real story Queen’s Blade: Rebellion is trying to tell. In the first episode, everything is chaos. We have too many fetishes to even comprehend: necromantic pirates, tentacle women, lolicon dwarves, and everything else you could think of. Characters can’t even tell the difference between woman and man (as showcased by Annelotte)— truly, chaos. In episode 2, however, the culture begins to take on more of an identity. The religious belief that masochistic prostration is holy reigns over society, and tentacles – “artificial” means of intercourse – also see rampant use. Indeed, there is even a scene in which Annelotte becomes closer to societies’ supposed god than even the clergy, but only with the help of our friend the tentacle squid.

It is in episode 3, however, that this culture’s rise encounters a conflict, which quickly spirals out of control and reaches a climax. In the beginning of the episode, we see that tentacles have become ubiquitous. Even the plants and beasts have them. A tribe of strangely orange people living near the mountains Draggle and Co. have mentioned show yet another combination of tentacles and prostration, indicating that the practice has spread far beyond that of just the church. As the use of tentacles spirals out of control, the tribe of orange people attempts to branch out and bring who they think is a male into their predominantly feminist sex society, as described by Snippettee and Redball. When they find out that Annelotte is, in fact, yet another female, they quickly retreat back to their old practices. By this point, however, the use of the tentacles has gotten out of hand. There is even a double tentacle rape in which the Moon Dancer cannot even tell the difference between a human and a monster tentacle. This exemplifies just how chaotic their use has become. As other beasts assault the village, only the use of the symbolic lance by Annelotte (a character who has, incidentally, been mistaken for a man on more than one occasion) maintains the order of the village. It is through this act that we see the world is slowly accepting the male inclusion to the sex society. Unable to fully accept the change at this point, however, the villagers keep the males sealed, for now. One can only wonder in what other ways this fledgling culture will grow over the course of the show.

draggle: On the surface, Queen’s Blade may be a show about tentacle rape, exploding clothes, and oversexualized children and robots. However, if you look a bit beneath the surface, you’ll discover that Queen’s Blade is an incisive and methodical study in cultural anthropology, human sexuality, and theology.

I’m sorry. I can’t. I really can’t take this seriously. I’m currently trying so hard to suppress all my laughter! I commend you all obviously for taking a look at Queen’s Blade in this way but…I’m sorry. I just can’t!

A lot of creativity is shown in this post. Hilarious. You’re all just kind of making it up as you go.

I have a random thought. Since you guys managed to conjure up meaning and ideas from what some would consider a vacuous show, why not try this same team effort with a show that is made up. In other words, how about trying to blog a ghost show. You would be able to let your imaginations run free and just make up the entire concept and commentary. Just a thought…

Ok, I certainly miss some of the content, but since the content isn’t a huge as mountain p*nis, oops sorry I meant Fuji, everything is alright. Great effort guys and gals 🙂 Such posts are equally good with apples for someone’s health- you make six packs with no effort from the laughs 😛

So from everything I’ve gathered here, the overall message of Queens Blade, from the character models to the structure of the world itself, is meant to symbolize the never-ending search of the director for a girlfriend.

Amazing post, you guys. I wish I could have been there to hear you guys brainstorming this series. Must have been an amazing call.

I feel bad for not watching Queen’s Blade now. Still, I doubt Queen’s Blade could be anywhere near as deep and meaningful as AKB0048. That show is really deep and I would do a full 6000 word+ analysis with citations but I am afraid I lack the intellectual aptitude to attempt such a feat.